Trick or Treat
by NullNoMore
Summary: If you thought Nopon couldn't get cuter, you should see them on Halloween. If you thought L couldn't get weirder, well, that too. And then there is Lin Lee Koo. All the good stuff belongs to Monolith Soft, and I want to give them candy.


**Trick or Treat, Mira Style**

 **a/n: If you thought Littlepon couldn't get cuter, you should see them on Halloween. If you thought L couldn't get weirder, well, that too. And then there is Lin Lee Koo.**

 **Written fast and unexpectedly, corrections welcome.**

 **No swears (if I left one in, tell me!), treasure bunnies, and a little sadness. All the good stuff belongs to Monolith Soft. They've owned my heart for several years now, and I owe them a whole lot of candy.**

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Littlepon moved about Barista Alley in twos and threes. The braver ones darted about, while the younger or more timid ones clung to their mamapons' earwings. Some carried glowing (and carefully pruned) amana durian on long twigs. All were carrying sacks. The inventiveness of the little creatures had proved limited. They mostly wore differently shaped knit hats, with added antennae and horns, or exaggerated colored goggles that tended to slip off their faces when they bounced. But all were clearly intrigued by the idea of getting sweets from the humans in the area, and for free.

In addition to the candy collectathon, there was a beagflea squash carving table and a game area (ring toss, pin the tail on the grex, and guess the weight of the skell). All good fun and very cheerful. Even if the Nopon families weren't likely to become big customers, the human BLADEs were certainly intrigued by this festival of cute. The businesses in the Commercial District had organized this block-party trick-or-treat event partly as a cultural exchange and partly as a promotional device. A number of other citizens of NLA had also come in costume, and there was a brisk business in beverages for all ages.

Since he arrived, Doug had counted three pirates, one ghost, innumerable vampires, and two cowboys. He'd also gotten the comm device link for a sexy nurse and a treasure bunny. Making the event worth the visit, at least in that way. He scratched his neck. If only his strong man costume wasn't quite so itchy. Alexa had suggested it, and then laughed her head off, so he'd figured it was a probably as good a costume as any.

He saw her now, marching through the crowd. "You'll know it's me when you see me." Which could only mean one thing. Well, actually, a range of things, but from the looks of it, she had gone with a regulation version of a Lailah skell, complete with pink color scheme, glowing center ring, and exaggerated shoulder weapons. He moved to meet her.

"I thought you were going to come in costume," he said.

"Ha ha. Same to you. Actually, I was going to go with something a little lighter, but I figured I'd let Lin have the Urban model, since that's her favorite."

"Please tell me that none of those weapons are functional."

"Doug! I wouldn't do that around kids! But there has got to be a great idea in that suggestion. Let me make a note to myself." She tapped her wrist and a comm device screen popped out. "Oh, Lin sent something … uh, she's running late…"

Doug felt a little disappointed. The scene was interesting and all that, and he appreciated the flirting aspects, but he would have been about as happy, back home, watching the news and getting ready for tomorrow. It had been a hard couple of weeks.

"Come on. Let's see what's here anyway." Alexa had grabbed his arm and was pulling him through the crowd. "Hey, where's your friend with the tight pants?"

"Uh, he didn't feel like coming. Sort of makes him uncomfortable, this kind of thing." It used to be a big deal, back on Earth. That last year, it had featured a full day of choosing pumpkins, and carving, and running around throwing pumpkin guts at a squealing little girl, and sappy movies at the end of it. He'd been so grateful to be invited, to be part of a normal safe family. He shook his head and plastered a smile on his face. "He likes to keep himself to himself, mostly."

"Doesn't like crowds, huh? I can see why he wouldn't like it. Hey, watch where you're going!" Alexa shouted at a BLADE that had walked into her (or rather, that she had walked into – her costume wasn't the best when it came to unobstructed vision).

They watched some little Nopon bobbing for starlight apples, keeping well away from the splash zone. The viewers were extra far away because each time a triumphant furball pulled a fruit from the tub, he or she would proceed to shake like a wet dog to dry off a little.

"Cheese and crackers, look over there!" squealed Alexa suddenly.

Two figures had their own clearance zone around them, as visitors keep their distance. Doug sighed, again, and walked over to them.

"Hi, L. I see you chose a Definian costume. Nice, er, legs."

"We are so glad you approve, Doug. We had to work extra hard to find enough strapping to suit ourselves, but it was worth the effort."

"My legs are better," grumbled Frye next to him.

"Frye! Bunny costume! Ahhhhhhh!" shrieked Alexa with laughter.

"Finally got yourself into a skell, huh, Alexa?"

"Where did you find kicky little shoes that fit?!"

"We asked Eleonora for him. She was most forthcoming. And helpful."

"Frye, you need to own that costume," instructed Alexa with a smile. "For all of BLADE."

"What do you care?"

"Man, whatever got you into that gear?" asked Doug.

Frye muttered something incomprehensible. Luckily for the others, L was ready with the details. "Our friend lost a bet with a member of his division. His loss is all of our gain. He provided our personal inspiration as well."

"What kind of a bet?"

"I challenged Irina to a drinking contest."

"You mean, if she'd lost, she would have dressed as…" Alexa started.

Now it was Doug's turn to laugh. "Oh man. Never in a million years. I could have warned you, Frye. She's not called Iron Akulov just for her lovely personality. Her stomach is pure steel."

"My head was pure broken concrete by the end of it. Jesus, these heels are the least of my pain."

"Own it, Frye! For Interceptor pride," ordered Alexa.

"And we will stick a pose also." L's choice would have made H.B. proud. Frye broke into a wicked grin, twisted on his heel, and made sure everyone had a good view of his fluffy, fluffy tail, to the rabid cheers of Alexa and (less so) Doug.

"Ah, we do believe we see our own Colonel, as an indigen of Earth."

"Huh, a dog costume. Simple but cute," commented Frye.

"I'm surprised. I would have guessed she was a cat person," said Alexa.

Doug said nothing. Absolutely nothing. He personally was more of a …

His thoughts were interrupted by a loud hubbub of littlepon moving down the alley. A group of four or five pastel colored fluffballs were swarming a larger Nopon. All were headed that way. "Alexa! Alexa! Tatsu is here!"

"Dadapon promise us candy! Fork it over!" cried his half-pint entourage.

"Tatsu, you gotta teach your brothers and sisters not to call you that. Gives people the wrong idea," said Alexa.

"My littlepon miss their father. Such a handsome Nopon," sighed the adult female following at a sedate distance. She straightened her own costume with pride, before fussing over her younger children.

Once again, Koko and her family had proved themselves exceptional Nopon. Unlike their co-species members, they had clearly gone all in for this holiday. Each littlepon was elaborately dressed as a indigen. The smallest had a silvery puffy hat, curved red spikes, and several golden medallions. Another child, one with a very playful expression, wore large pointed ears and nose and tail. Koko herself was resplendent as a version of a uni-mer-pon, with a delicate spiral horn and a glittering lacy fish tail.

Tatsu was something else entirely. Swishing embroidered black cape, red silk vest, froth of white scarf, and a large toy sword. He'd removed his hood, something that had never happened before to Doug's knowledge, and had patted and parted his spiral cowlick into a set of perky bangs. He waved his sword excitedly in one hand.

"Watch it, Tatsu. You should hold on to that with both hands," chided Alexa.

"Tatsu can only use one hand!"

"Why? Is that part of the costume?"

"Yes, no, maybe, Tatsu not sure, but mostly need other hand for candy sack."

"So, are you a pirate or something?"

"No! Nopon pirates notoriously ugly and scruffy. Tatsu is Legendary Ur-Heropon of Legendariness! See? See? Blossom Dance!" He swung the sword around madly, managing to hit only one of his siblings, who promptly burst into tears. Tatsu's face fell. "Hush, sisterpon. Tatsu will give you extra candy." Just as promptly, the child stopped crying and held out her candy sack. "Once Tatsu gets some." And the crying started again, but only to be ignored.

"Where's Lin?" asked Doug.

"Linly not coming. Say she want to stay home and read. Can we go candy collecting now?"

"You left her behind?"

"She not coming. No costume, nothing. Tatsu would have stayed, honest, but …"

"But he is a very responsible big brotherpon," interrupted Koko. "I made him leave. But Koko think maybe one of you should go check on your littlepon. Tell her we miss her."

"I'll go," said Doug before anyone else could speak.

It was a fast run back to the barracks, and Doug wasn't even out of breath when he strolled in to the main area. Sure enough, Lin was there, sitting on one of the orange couches, dressed as she normally was in trek shorts and comfortable shirt. She wasn't reading, only sitting there. Not quite a sulk, not quite a stew, most definitely not happy with her world.

"Hey, Lin."

"If you're here to convince me to come trick-or-treating, I'm not going. I'm too old for that kind of thing," snapped Lin. But it was a very soggy sounding snap.

"Sure. No idea what that makes me, dressed like this." He dropped onto the space beside her and kicked his legs onto the table.

"I could tell you, but I'm too nice for that."

"Koko told me to say she missed you."

"I'm not going to dress up just to make other people happy."

"How about making yourself happy, kiddo?"

"I'm not your kiddo. I'm no one's ki…" She shut her mouth quickly.

"Aw, Lin. You know exactly who you are." Doug took a deep breath. "And you know how much we all love you. Even Tatsu."

"I'm not going."

"Why the change? I remember you pushing everyone to do this kind of stuff on the Whale."

"Oh Doug, I don't know. It seemed important then, doing things to make the days different. Everything on the ship was such an endless grind at times."

"Yeah, it's easy to forget how hard we had to work then. Not that Mira is a picnic, but at least we have sunsets and fresh fruit…"

"Anyway, I just don't feel like it. I'm tired of always being the youngest. I'm tired of doing stuff to make other people happy. Does that make me selfish? Because I'm definitely not feeling nice about other people today."

Doug didn't answer that question. "Did you know the Prone have something like this?"

"What? Being mean?"

"No, dressing up and having a party. You know how they don't stay kids for long, right?"

"Yeah, they're grown in about five or six years. Crazy."

"Well, I was watching some video, a sort of cultural program, and they were talking about a holiday they have, Dance of the Seven Skulls or something like that. As a male grows up, he saves the first skull of each type of animal he kills."

"Ew. So Prone."

"So, right, the first kind is usually pretty small, but they get bigger and bigger as he goes along, right? When he's killed his seventh kind, they have a big party. The littler Prone wear the early skulls, and the birthday boy wears the largest one."

"Depending on the size of the prey, that could get massive."

"Well, maybe they get help holding it. I don't remember. Anyway, everybody has a big meal and a lot of dancing and fun times."

"They do this for every kid?"

"Just boys, and not all the time."

"So not fair."

"It had something to do with migration cycles and other junk, honestly I didn't pay the best of attention. It was late at night. Point is…"

"I _KNEW_ IT. You had a moral tucked behind that boring story."

"It isn't boring. We need to respect our allies and learn from them."

"Blah blah blah, Doug. You sound like Nagi."

Doug ignored the insult that felt like a compliment. "Point is," he repeated, "the party is for the little ones and the big ones and especially for the kids that are in-between. Not grown up, not little, but moving in both places."

"I'm the only kid left."

"We got allies with children now, Lin, even if some resemble vegetables in both appearance and value. As soon as we get the Lifehold safe, I promise you, you'll have all the company you need, big and small. So you might as well practice on the Nopon kids. Some of them are awful cute."

Lin sighed. Doug said softly, "It's never good to keep yourself away. We miss you, Lin. But if you really don't want to go, don't go. I don't mind hanging out here with ya. Especially if you feel up to cooking something." He smiled down at her. "So, put on a costume or an apron. Either way is fine with me."

Lin looked at her hands. "I have a costume, but … I'm not sure about it."

"Show me first. I'm a good test subject. It's not going to explode or anything, right?"

She jumped to her feet. "I'll be back in a second. Don't go anywhere."

Like he'd ever leave her behind. Silly kid. The barrack's cat was taking no chances, however, and proceeded to drape itself all over his lap. Every time he pushed it off, it came back, with claws. He settled into the job of feline back scratcher.

"Okay, you can look now," came a voice from the entrance to the sleeping quarters.

Of all the costumes that Doug would have guessed, this was not one of them. Not skell nor bunny, not superhero nor indigen of any planet. Lin was the pinkest and fluffiest of all possible ballerinas. Ribbon slippers, multi-layered swirling skirt, a delicate top glittering with sequins, and a spray of flowers tucked into her hair. "I look stupid."

"You look lovely. Wow. Amazing."

"But not me."

"That's kind of the point of a costume. It's you and not you."

"It feels weird."

Doug couldn't stop himself. "What made you chose it? Not that it isn't gorgeous but … it's so … pink …"

"I know. But I found an old picture of my mom, when she was about my age. She was wearing something like this and …"

"And that was your inspiration. Jeez, Lin, you are amazing. And you look beautiful. I bet Tatsu's going to give you all his candy."

"That good?" She slowly grinned at him.

"Absolutely. Come on, before he eats any of it."

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 **a/n: Tatsu's family: unafulge, terebra, xiphias. If you don't know who Tatsu is, you are dead to me. (No, sorry, I love you. Now go play Xenoblade Chronicles, you deserve it plus it is only $20 on the eshop. You can thank me later.)**

 **Visit deviant artist Rosyan for all your treasure bunny needs (Defense Secretary Bunny? Squeeeee!)**

 **In House Null, Youngest Child is currently Monkey D. Luffy, because scruffy pirates are easy. Eldest Child's plan of being H.B. was a total fail, because I dump all my love on fanfiction, and not the needs of the tiny cosplayers in my house. Also, armor is a scary proposition.**

 **And Happy Halloween. Or Monday. Depending.**


End file.
